MovieChat Forums > Lost Horizon (1937) Discussion > Good footage of Douglas DC-2

Good footage of Douglas DC-2

posted 18 years ago by DrHypersonic
4 replies | jump to latest

I know this probably strikes most readers as a pretty anal comment, but, as an airplane fanatic, I was fascinated to see how extensive and really good the footage is of the airplane. It is a Douglas DC-2, a 14-passenger predecessor to the 21-passenger DC-3 of 1935 that revolutionized international air travel. To the American public in the early to mid-1930's, the DC transport family--all metal, streamlined, enclosed cabin monoplanes, with retractable landing gears--spoke of "modernity" in much the same fashion that, say, a modern Airbus or Boeing 777 would today. I suspect that the desert refueling scene was actually shot at what is now Palm Springs airport. Also, the markings on the airplane are essentially accurate, mimicking those of China National Air Transport, which used DC-2s, and later DC-3s, at the time.

[–] JacquesDemy 18 years ago

Interesting. The footage is very good. The meaning of those Chinese characters on the plane is "General Cheng" or "Commander Cheng", which reminded me of Chennault at first. But the movie was shot in 1937, so it was just kind of coincidence. China had some DC-2s in the 1930s, but I don't think they were used for any international air route. While later in WWII, to support Chinese government, U.S. built an air supply route from India, over the Himalayan mountains, into China, known as "Camel's Hump". A lot of airplanes were lost there, due to bad weather or Japanese attack. So some DC-2s might really have crashed in that area.

In a TV interview, Jane Wyatt mentioned that many scenes were shot in an icehouse, so I guess that is where they shot the crashing scene, probably with a wooden airplane model. And I also think all scenes inside that airplane were probably shot in their studio, because it would be very difficult to shoot those dialogue scenes in air with so many people and equipments on the plane.

[–] CarolynK 18 years ago

I read somewhere that it was supposed to be a DC-3, but that even then, the interior of the plane would be unrealistic, because it is much larger and more luxurious than the plane would've been in reality. I'm just offering that information as "food for thought". I don't know much about airplanes myself, so I am definitely not arguing with you.

[–] joegerardi-1 10 years ago

Nope. Definitely a DC-2. The tail gives it away: it's completely different from the DC-3. They re-worked the tail to make the rudder a little larger on the -3 because the plane was larger and they wanted more rudder authority.

Couple of trivia items: All the DC-2s and -3s had cloth-covered control surfaces. Aluminum was used only for the wings, fuselage, and vertical and horizontal stabilizers. The Rudder, flaps, and elevators were an aluminum skeleton with doped and painted cloth over them;

The "DC" in DC-2 and DC-3 stands for "Douglas Commercial."

The first DC-3s were actually called Douglas STs, which stood for "Sleeper Transports. The idea was that you slept on the plane as it made its way across the country, a Journey which took about 15 hours west-east, and about 17 hours east-west.

..Joe

[–] dioro 17 years ago

They said the refuelling scenes were shot near Victorville, CA.